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1

MacKenzie Scott, Melinda French Gates, and Lauren Sánchez Bezos are rewriting the rules of billionaire giving—one quietly, one strategically, one very publicly

2

After donating $48 billion to the Gates Foundation, Warren Buffett is quietly ending one of the biggest philanthropic relationships in history

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Current price of silver as of Tuesday, July 14, 2026
China

China Tightens the Noose on Free Online Speech, Again

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David Meyer
David Meyer
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David Meyer
David Meyer
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August 28, 2017, 5:58 AM ET
CHINA-COMPUTERS-INTERNET
A man uses a computer in an internet cafe in Beijing on June 1, 2017. China implemented a controversial cybersecurity law on June 1, despite concerns from foreign firms worried about its impact on their ability to do business in the world's second largest economy. / AFP PHOTO / GREG BAKER (Photo credit should read GREG BAKER/AFP/Getty Images)Greg Baker—AFP/Getty Images
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Chinese authorities have stepped up their war against free online speech by banning web platforms from accepting comments from anonymous users.

China’s “cyberspace administration” said in rules published Friday that internet forum providers had to force their users to register using their real names, which they must verify, reports The Diplomat. The web companies must also immediately report illegal comments to the authorities, and pre-screen comments on current affairs.

Illegal comments include those that spread rumors, potentially disrupt social order, leak secrets, damage China’s national honor, incite hatred, undermine the state’s policies about religion, and insult people.

The new laws come into effect at the start of October. This is the latest move in a long-running and not entirely successful campaign to introduce real-name registration across China’s internet services. However, while the government has previously only been able to get the largest services to play along, this new announcement could spell trouble for smaller service providers.

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As noted on the free-expression rights blog Global Voices Advocacy, smaller websites and forums will struggle to implement the new law due to the cost of running verifications on users’ identities, for example by sending out mobile text messages. Such services may have to shut down their commenting features, in order to stay legal.

For more on China, watch Fortune’s video:

The Chinese authorities have been increasing their campaign to control online activities in the last couple of years, for example by forcing media companies to host their content on Chinese servers. Recently, they also banned the use of virtual private networks or VPNs, which are tools people can use to cover their tracks online, and to bypass China’s filters for blocking out unwanted foreign content.

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